Lakers Rumors: Possible trade packages to receive a great sixth man

Very similar to the last deal, the Lakers are here trading away an expendable guard to bring in a solid sixth man center in Greg Monroe. Monroe has really thrived on the Milwaukee Bucks this season and would be a huge addition to this Lakers team. Not only that, the Lakers would effectively be getting rid of their priciest asset in Timofey Mozgov.

Mozgov makes way too much money, we all know that. Mozgov is owed somewhere around $16 million each year from the Los Angeles Lakers, and with minimal output, this is the worst $16 million the team could spend. While they are not bringing in two tiny contracts in Monroe and Hawes, they are still freeing up some space to allow flexibility if they want to bring in stars in the future.

As for Monroe’s stats, he averaged 11.7 points, 6.6 rebounds, and 1.1 steals in 22.5 minutes played per game. Monroe is slightly better defensively than Kanter and would slot perfectly behind Zubac. Monroe would give the Lakers a nice scoring big man off the bench, but more importantly would bring solid, physical defense.

Adding in Spencer Hawes is more for money reasons, as without him the Bucks would be taking in too much salary. However, as he gets healthy he could be a decent third option for the Lakers. If anything, Hawes at the very least adds depth to a thin Lakers unit.

While Monroe may be slightly worse than Enes Kanter, being able to free up the contract space of Timofey Mozgov and adding in a second big man alongside Monroe may make this deal slightly better.